Lifestyle Marketing : Everything You Need to Know in 2023

You may have had a profound and irreplaceable link with specific brands like Cadburys chocolate when you were a child. One of the reasons it reaches your top ten list is its flavor, and another acceptable one is the emotional connection you feel because of their advertisement. We’re sure you remember their gorilla drumming ad. It was not only intriguing, but it was also unlike any other sort of marketing. The ‘must-have’ product strategy is a thing of the past. Now, if you desire to stand out from the crowd, you have to create an aura around your products that fascinates your customers. This marketing method, known as lifestyle marketing, helps you instill a sense of trust and loyalty among your customers.

What is Lifestyle Marketing?

According to a survey by McKinsey, the global wellness industry – which includes lifestyle products and services – is expected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2024.

Your lifestyle is usually defined by your hobbies, views, qualities, and culture, distinguishing them from others. In addition, your way of life is influenced by geography, demographics, social standards, and spirituality. Lifestyle marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on certain lifestyles. Celebrating your audience’s desired life and becoming the adopted brand that assists them in achieving it is part of the lifestyle process.

Around 88% of the customers desire to be associated with a brand that helps them be environmentally friendly and more ethical. That is why most lifestyle firms use a soft approach to ensure a warm welcome from their target audience.

Traditional marketing strategies enticed customers to purchase more goods from them.

Furthermore, another report by Accenture found that 63% of consumers prefer to buy from companies that share their beliefs and values. These statistics highlight the importance of incorporating lifestyle marketing into your business strategy.

On the other hand, the modern world’s lifestyle marketing focuses on establishing an ideal lifestyle that its audience desires with the support of their brand. Take Nike and Adidas, for example, which encourage individuals to live a healthy lifestyle by wearing fashionable gear.

Key points that lifestyle marketing covers are as follows:

• Who is their target audience?
• What is the ideal lifestyle that they are seeking?
• What are the most effective ways to communicate their way of life?
• What kind of experiences will their brand provide?

What Are Some Effective Ways to Include Lifestyle Marketing in Your Business Strategy?

The basic concept behind lifestyle marketing is to integrate your brand into your customers’ daily lives, which you can do in a variety of ways:

Have a deep understanding of your target audience

Studies show that 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a remarkable customer experience. A lifestyle marketing strategy is built on the same formula, which requires a deeper understanding of your customers. Research your target buyer persona’s lifestyle. Have a thorough understanding of their psychographics and demography.

Do they have the skills and hobbies that will pique their interest in your product? Examine every piece of information before establishing a close connection with them. You can conduct a survey to gain insight into your customers’ lives daily. You can find out their problems and then suggest ways to solve them.

A very noteworthy example of the same would be Red Bull. Their marketing strategy has definitely been a paramount example of targeting the right audience. In a very short time span, the brand has successfully positioned itself as a drink for active, adventurous, and thrill-seeking individuals.

Their media campaigns and influencer marketing revolves around outdoor and extreme sports activities – we can even recall the Red Bull Rampage, Red Bull Air Race, and X Games.

Without any doubt, such events have been a true reflection of how well-connected they are with their audience. This billion-dollar company has targeted its ideal customer in a cordial manner!

Increase your brand engagement on social media

More than 50% of the world’s population is highly active on different social media platforms, making them a perfect tool to incorporate lifestyle marketing into your business strategy. Interact with your audience on a high level through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram etc., and answer their concerns to earn their confidence and commitment.

Hold events for your target population and use relevant hashtags to raise brand awareness. For example, in cooperation with the Golden Globe Awards, Loreal Paris launched the #WorthSaying campaign, which aimed to give women greater power and encourage them to speak up about issues that matter to them.

This campaign received a lot of attention on social media sites like Twitter, and it was extensively shared by celebrities like Blake Lively and Jennifer Lopez.

#Bonus tip – To increase your brand engagement on social media, you should use: 

visually appealing content, engage with your audience, post consistently, utilize relevant hashtags, run contests and promotions, collaborate with influencers, monitor analytics, and personalize your content. By implementing these strategies, you can build a loyal following and increase your brand’s reach on social media.

Include demonstration in your marketing strategy

Product demonstration videos showing how your product works can be an excellent way to show the benefits your brand will offer them. There’s a good chance they don’t understand how your product would improve their lives and address their problems, so you’ll need to shed some light on the scenario.

Video demonstrations are particularly popular, with studies showing that they can help consumers make buying decisions. Demonstrations can also help to showcase the unique features and benefits of your product or service in a way that resonates with your target audience.

By incorporating demonstrations into your marketing strategy, you can increase engagement, build trust, and ultimately drive sales. in simple words, please make an effort to explain the significance of your product in their lives in a fresh way.

Humans are strongly attracted to images and videos; therefore, use visual examples to persuade people, just like Sephora does. For example, Sephora makes a makeup video of its goods that uses constant and bright lighting to demonstrate its products’ many colors and angles.

Advertise your brand on lifestyle TV stations

Even though most of your audience is busy on social media, promoting your brand on other digital channels is still equally important. TV is the second most profitable platform – after the Internet – when it comes to brand advertisement. Lifestyle tv is an excellent way to get your brand in front of a local audience. Collaborate with a media company to sponsor segments of your business on lifestyle television channels. All you have to do now is offer your product information politely and engagingly.

Create content that leaves an impact

In this area, out-of-the-box content that is easy to market is a fantastic source of guidance. Use forms like blogs, guides, reviews, and listicles to provide your audience with information about your company. Your written material must provide an opinion on a common belief that encourages users to buy from you. To build a stronger connection with your audience, make sure your campaign resonates with their emotions. Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign, which instilled a sense of cultural leadership in its audience, is the best example of this idea.

List of Some Successful Lifestyle Marketing Campaigns by Topmost International Brands

Mark & Spencer

With lifestyle marketing, the British multinational retailer has persuaded its consumers to experience a higher level of living by adding products like linen skirts and tops to their lives. It embodies their brand value while also catering to the evolving needs of their target audience. They tend to connect with their audience by providing fashion advice on their blogs and websites. Everything they do, from their product quality to their brand image, is geared at providing a memorable customer experience at all costs.

Marlboro

Marlboro, an American cigarette brand declared the most popular cigarette brand as per the 2017 sales data, came up with the ‘Mild as May’ campaign to attract their female audience. It used the image of a stylish woman smoking cigarettes in a very fashionable way.

Harley Davidson

The American motorbike brand has always tried to make an emotional connection with its customers. It is an iconic component of American culture, with its adventurous persona and loyal following. They provide a personalized experience to their clients while remaining true to their brand value. For example, it created a series of short movies where bikers from all over the world share moments from various walks of life as part of one of its campaigns titled “all for freedom and freedom for all.”

Red Bull

Without a question, the best example of lifestyle marketing is Red Bull. This energy drink not only stresses its taste or the amount of caffeine it contains, but it also embraces the energetic lifestyle that its target demographic desires. Through its Felix Baumgartner freefall from outer space film, this brand succeeded to catch the attention of all those who had never heard of its energy drink.

Burt’s Bees

This natural skincare company represents many clients’ sustainable and environment friendly way of life. Its target consumers enjoy organic products and wish to incorporate such practices into their daily lives. As a result, they have provided some context in the lives of their clients in ‘Raise the Burt’s campaign,’ demonstrating how their goods have made a significant difference in its customers’ lives.

Dove

Dove was well aware that their consumer base included many women, from supermodels to everyday homemakers. As a result, they developed their Real Beauty campaign, which aimed to boost women’s self-esteem. The goal was to convey that all women are equally beautiful regardless of age or color.

Nike

Nike’s ‘Just do it’ campaign demonstrates that the brand is more than just about selling sports shoes; it also promotes the idea that everyone can become an athlete at any time in their lives. On Instagram, there are more than 16 million posts with the hashtag “Just do it,” It is one of the brands with the most user produced content (UGC) on social media platforms.

Apple

Apple products are no longer just gadgets; they have become a status symbol for many people. It is all because of their customer-centric approach where they offer a clean, ingenious and innovative technology environment to their customers. In addition, Apple wanted the Mac to represent empowerment, with the commercial presenting the Mac as a weapon for resisting conformity and establishing originality.

How Does Lifestyle Marketing Benefit Several Brands?

One of the goals of lifestyle marketing is to bridge the gap between low-cost and idealistic luxury. They mostly strive to reach out to middle-class communities and help them portray a successful image of themselves. Lifestyle marketing offers the following advantages to several brands:

Uses long-form episodes to popularize your product

In lifestyle marketing, long-form commercial videos allow you to give your target audience a much deeper understanding of your products and services. You can keep the segments for 2-4 minutes and establish a stronger relationship with your clients throughout that period. For the video to be successful, try to include as much information and humor as possible.

Over the past five years, long-form videos (60 minutes or longer) have seen a staggering 446% growth, while short-form videos (5 to 30 minutes) have experienced a substantial increase of 288%. In contrast, the number of brief movies between 0 and 1 minute in length has only risen by 100.3%. Strengthens your connection with your audience

Strengthens your connection with your audience

By highlighting your business as a significant part of your audience’s lifestyle, you can engage with them on a creative and emotional level. Not only that, but when your audience finds it relevant to their lives, they get more involved with your company and become loyal customers who will always back you up.

As an example, Starbucks in all these years has strengthened its connection through its reward program – which offers a multitude of benefits like birthday/anniversary rewards, free drinks, and early access to new launches. This significantly incentivizes their buyers, to continue to place orders or visit stores more often.

The mobile app version with rewards tracking, pay-for purchases, and a convenient shopping experience makes them feel valued and appreciated. All in all, the ease and convenience they have been offering to their customers automatically create a sense of loyalty, ultimately, leading to repeated purchases and positive word-of-mouth advertising.  Customers will envision the advantages of your product in their own lives.

Customers will envision the advantages of your product in their own lives.

By providing detailed information and benefits regarding your items, you can help your target audience visualize themselves using your product and have fantastic outcomes. They are more likely to buy from your company if they imagine themselves using your goods and experience the benefits.

Reaches a wider audience

The lifestyle component engages a larger share of the audience. As a result, by investing in lifestyle marketing methods, you can reach a bigger audience and broaden your brand’s reach.

As an example, Apple is known for providing detailed information about its products, including specifications, features, and benefits. Their website offers comprehensive product descriptions, tutorials, and demos. Also, their product design, advertising, flagship stores, and partnerships are highly appealing and engaging and has helped the brand maintain a strong position as a brand in the market.

Increases your brand’s creative reach

Lifestyle marketing allows you to interact with people from all cultures and backgrounds, allowing you to incorporate their positive qualities into your brand. In addition, you can incorporate facts that will appeal to your target audience and increase your sales.

Challenges That Various Brands Encounter on Their Way to Lifestyle Marketing

Lose Focus

Soft selling is used in lifestyle marketing methods; instead of using a hard and fast methodology, they allude to their audience by creating a story about their business. Due to this gentle approach, numerous businesses have lost their focus at times. The whole goal of marketing is to sell, so if you’re not selling, it’s a waste of time.

Competition

Lifestyle marketing focuses on an overly broad lifestyle, raising competition in that sector. A cosmetic brand, for example, will face stiff competition from other cosmetic brands selling similar items. As a result, developing a lifestyle marketing approach that sets you apart from your competitors is critical.

Maintaining Authenticity

Consumers are quick to spot inauthentic brands, so it’s important for brands to be genuine in their lifestyle marketing efforts. Undoubtedly, the modern user base is tech-savvy, smart, and research-oriented, which is why this brings in a lot of positive differences.

As an example, Louis Vuitton maintains its authenticity through its heritage, limited distribution, innovation, quality, and brand image. The brand’s commitment to quality and craftsmanship, tight control over distribution channels, and exclusive collaborations help to reinforce its luxury image and appeal to discerning consumers.

Nicolas Ghesquière presents his Pre-Fall 2023 Women’s Collection in Seoul. #LVPREFALL23 https://t.co/DmgxuRCeZA

— Louis Vuitton (@LouisVuitton) April 29, 2023

Keeping up with trends

Lifestyle brands need to stay up-to-date and adapt their marketing strategies accordingly in order to remain relevant and resonate with their target audience. Consumer preferences and behaviors constantly evolve, and are driven by changes in technology, culture, and societal norms. Brands that fail to keep pace risk losing market share and becoming outdated.

By staying on top of trends and adapting their strategies accordingly, lifestyle brands can maintain their relevance and appeal to their audience, ultimately driving sales and growth.

You can learn a lot with the trending lifestyle label – Patagonia’s authenticity, ethics and a commitment to quality built one of the world’s greatest brands.

Source: TheGentlemansJournal

Balancing marketing and sales

Lifestyle marketing should focus on creating a strong brand image and engaging with customers, but brands also need to drive sales and achieve business objectives.

Measuring ROI

Lifestyle marketing can be difficult to measure in terms of ROI, so brands need to develop metrics that can accurately track the impact of their marketing efforts on business outcomes.

Elite brand Adidas uses data analytics to track the success of its influencer marketing campaigns. By measuring engagement and sales generated from these campaigns, Adidas can determine its ROI.

Examples of Brand Campaigns Failing in Lifestyle Marketing

Levi’s ‘hotness comes in all shapes and sizes’ marketing campaign.

Levi’s tried to popularize its new Curve ID jeans using the marketing campaign, ‘hotness comes in all shapes and sizes, which was a great move to support body positivity. But the brand distracted from its tagline by using what others considered skinny models in their ad campaign.

Nike’s Oscar Pistorius ad

The double-amputee Oscar and other athletes were featured in motion in one of Nike’s marketing campaigns, with the narrator describing athletes’ bodies as weapons. ‘I am the bullet in the chamber,’ Pistorius later wrote as a caption. Because the same olympian was later charged with murder with a firearm, Nike’s ad campaign drew a lot of hatred.

Airbnb’s floating world campaign

Airbnb ran a ‘floating world’ campaign that featured an image of a house floating on the water’s surface. This commercial was not harmful, but the timing was. Unfortunately, the timing of this marketing effort coincided with Hurricane Harvey’s devastation of Houston, and hence it failed.

Summary

The main goal of lifestyle marketing is to promote your brand by embedding it into your target audience’s daily lives. Develop a thorough grasp of your customer before tailoring your campaign to their interests and abilities, allowing you to develop a strong bond with them. It’s a great method to get the word out about your company and reach a larger audience. This marketing tactic allows your audience to see themselves using your brand and experiencing the benefits of your goods.

By incorporating lifestyle marketing into your business, you can strengthen your relationship with your audience.